Premier League's Leicester City and Jose Mourinho's Roma played out a 1-1 stalemate in their European Conference League semifinal first leg on Thursday.

The energetic Foxes were stunned when Nicola Zalewski found space on the left to set up Roma captain Lorenzo Pellegrini for a 15th-minute opener against the run of play.

But Ademola Lookman met a 67th-minute cross from Harvey Barnes to force an own goal from Gianluigi Mancini which ensured parity on the night for Brendon Rodgers' team.

"I thought I took a nick on it and maybe it hit him after," Lookman told BT Sport. "They are a strong team, defensively very good but we played well today.

"It is going to be a difficult game (in Rome), playing away from home, the atmosphere, their fans, we will need our fans to be behind us.

"We are looking forward to the challenge - we will go there to try and win the game."

Mourinho's Roma, however, will be confident of finishing the job in front of its own supporters in next week's second leg to reach the May 25 final in Tirana.

"The second leg is going to be a tough game – but we'll be playing it at home, in front of our fans," said Pellegrini.

"We'll be fired up to do the best we can."

Former European champion Feyenoord is the slight favorite to make it to the final after winning a five-goal thriller 3-2 against Marseille in the other last-four tie.

Cyriel Dessers grabbed the opener and the winner for the Rotterdam hosts who also had Luis Sinisterra on the scoresheet.

Bamba Dieng and Gerson had Marseille level at the break but Dessers pounced on a mistake at the start of the second half to give the Dutch a narrow advantage.